Byzantium, the Lost Empire (4/4): Forever and Ever - ABTV (1997)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_Empire
With subtitle in Greek: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8660677296696390218#
"Byzantium, the Lost Empire", an Agran Barton TV production for The Learning Channel in association with IBIS Films and Channel Four Television ; series producer, Nicholas Barton ; written by John Romer ; co-writer, Elizabeth Romer ; series director, Derek Towers.
For more than 1,000 years, the Byzantine Empire was the eye of the entire world -- the origin of great literature, fine art and modern government. Heir to Greece and Rome, the Byzantine Empire was also the first Christian empire.
After a year of filming on three continents, TLC unlocks this ancient civilization, spanning 11 centuries and three continents. Pass through the gates of Constantinople, explore the magnificent mosque of Hagia Sophia and see the looted treasures of the empire now located in St. Marks, Venice.
Byzantium, brings to life an empire that, while seemingly distant, is very closely linked to the evolution of Western Civilization. Traces the growth of the first Christian empire, one that lasted for over a thousand years and the maturity and decline of Byzantium through its conquest by the Ottoman Turks in 1453.
John Romer, the author and on-screen guide for the series, breathes life into the city and the powerful ideas that made the Byzantium a thriving cultural and commercial center while western Europe was slogging through the Dark Ages and the Middle Ages.
At its height, Byzantium housed the most precious Christian relics, including a piece of Christ's cross. Located on the border of Europe and Asia, it ruled an empire that extended across Asia Minor and the Balkans. Then, after the rise of Islam, the empire shrank until little was left outside the city walls.
Byzantium turned to Europe for help in fighting the infidels, only to have its own city sacked by the Crusaders whose help it sought. Venice, its erstwhile trading partner, carried off many of its artistic masterpieces. The Hagia Sophia, originally built as a Christian church, became Istanbul's most famous mosque.
And the scholars who had kept alive the study of Greek for more than a millennium fled to Europe where they helped lay the groundwork for the Renaissance. Byzantium, the video, takes us on a visually sumptuous journey to key locations throughout the empire, while putting a human face on the key actors in the history of this unique and vital empire. I never suspected I would find this story as compelling as it turned out to be.
1. Building the dream
2. Heaven on Earth
3. Envy of the world
4. Forever and ever.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Byzantium
• Empire
• east
• Roman
• Balkan
• Peninsula

[jagdtigertube]

To focus entirely on the seizure of Constantinople by the Latins as the single most cause of the destruction of the Byzantine Empire is shortsighted at best. The very notion that a small Latin expedition into Constantinople demonstrates how weak the Empire had become.

Furthermore, the sheer power and wealth of the Turks was unstoppable. The Byzantines had barely resisted the Arabs in the 8th century, and the vast majority of their Eastern provinces were long lost. Sadly, it was inevitable.

[SleepWhenIamDead]

....what a tragic story....if the greedy capitalistic west hadn't plundered Constantinople it could have withheld the siege from the Turks....and the stolen artefacts in possession of the western cities should be returned to the places they were stolen from....that would help to repay and restore some of the places now under reconstruction.....theft is theft....

[Molohen]

Destroy Assyrians Berlin-Athens-Moscow!! Byzantine Aryan idiots!!

[sna1976]

If it wasn't for the West, Byzantium would have never fallen

[Kawasazki]

@RaulMeatFactorys explain what?

[RaulMeatFactorys]

@Kawasazki Explain?

[RaulMeatFactorys]

Very good doc, thanks.

[Kawasazki]

All the Muslims contributed to the world is the Zero and bloody constant endless wars...The turks, the Caliph of Egypt, Freakin Timurid and his golden horde...

[Kawasazki]

Please it was Mohamed that order the muslims against the Romans, if Byzantium was not such a great and storied empire standing in the way of the vile turks... the world would still be in the dark ages...what a nonsensical religion that is...